A large crash sounded, drawing Takanori Uehara out of the ABC Store at The Plaza in Tumon.

At the entrance, he came face to face with a man holding a knife in the air — poised to strike.

At that point, he didn’t know that his mother and sister had been stabbed to death.

He also didn’t know if he was going to live through the night, he said.

But before the knife could complete it’s deadly arc, the man holding it was tackled to the ground.

Then Uehara saw the bodies.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said last night.

Standing in the midst of local and international reporters in front of the Guam

Memorial Hospital he told his story with the help of a translator.

Uehara said he and his family were on Guam to celebrate a wedding. He and other family members arrived at 2 p.m. Tuesday, hours before the events that took the life of his niece, Rie Sugiyama, 29, and mother, 81-year-old Kazuko Uehara.

The man charged with their deaths is 21-year-old Tamuning resident Chad De Soto, a 2012 John F. Kennedy High School graduate.

De Soto allegedly drove his blue Toyota Yaris down the sidewalk in front of The Plaza and Outrigger Resort Guam, plowing through pedestrians. He crashed into the ABC Store at the end of the sidewalk — that was most likely the sound that Uehara heard.

The car hit six people, sending them to the hospital. One of those hit was 51-year-old Hitoshi Yakota, who died yesterday morning. He’s not related to the Uehara family, GMH officials confirmed Thursday.

De Soto is charged with stabbing Uehara’s niece, mother and five others — two of those were Uehara’s 3-year-old grandniece and 8-month-old grandnephew.

• Dinner party

Uehara said he and his family had dinner at the Outrigger Guam Resort earlier that evening.

According to reports from the Asahi Shimbun, the dinner party was walking back to their hotel at around 10 p.m.

Uehara said they stopped at the ABC Store and he went inside. Several, including the two women who died, stayed outside of the store.

Uehara said when he heard the crash, he ran outside to the entrance of the store, coming face-to-face with De Soto.

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The young man yelled something Uehara didn’t understand.He didn’t worry about the words, however, as he rushed to try to help his niece and mother who lay on the ground.

Uehara said everything happened quickly.

Police arrived and medics soon followed to help the injured. He was among the family members of the 14 victims who accompanied their loved ones to the hospital. He’s been there since.

His mother and niece weren’t the only ones hurt that night.

Uehara’s 8-month-old nephew’s stroller was hit by the Yaris. Other witnesses say the baby had a cut on his cheek. It’s unclear from Uehara’s narrative what injuries his 3-year-old niece sustained. The Asahi Shimbun said an unnamed witness, who also was a member of the dinner party, said the toddler was stabbed on the face, near her nose. Both children were listed in stable condition by GMH staff the following day.

Uehara’s aunt, Yoneko Uehara, 70, had also been stabbed. He said his aunt told him that she saw Rie Sugiyama and Kazuko Uehara on the ground and tried to help.

As she was trying to help, De Soto allegedly kicked her on the left shoulder and then stabbed her repeatedly before making his way to the ABC Store entrance.

Almost canceled

According to the Asahi Shimbun article, the 81-year-old Kazuko Uehara almost changed her mind about coming to Guam because of her advanced age. However, she had wanted to see her grandson, Rie Sugiyama’s brother, get married. Rie Sugiyama had gotten married on Guam.

Rie Sugiyama’s father, whom the article doesn’t name, told the Asahi Shimbun that he was nearby when he got a phone call that his mother and daughter had been stabbed.

He ran to ABC Store. His daughter had been transported to the hospital. His mother lay on the ground, covered in blood.

He told the Japanese newspaper that he climbed into an ambulance and accompanied his grandchildren to the hospital.

He said his daughter was an accountant at an import auto-dealership in Tochigi. He said she was a good worker and a loving mother. It was at the hospital where he learned that his daughter had died to protect her child, the Asahi Shimbun article states.

“Rie saved her daughter with her own blood,” he was quoted as saying.

Charges

According to Superior Court of Guam magistrate documents dated Feb. 14, De Soto told police he “intended on hurting as many people with his vehicle and subsequently with his knife.”

De Soto is currently being held on $2 million cash bail. He was charged with three counts of aggravated murder, as first-degree felonies; and attempted aggravated murder. Both charges are first-degree felonies. He’s also charged with eight counts of aggravated assault as a second-degree felony.

A special allegation, possession and use of a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony, was tacked on to the three charges.